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 (averaging about 100 tons) being stationed at Holyhead, and others at Dover and other ports. These little ships were valued at from £1,600 to £2,400 each.

In 1822 for the first time the mail was conveyed from Dover to Calais by steamship.

In 1825 Captain Johnson obtained £10,000 for making the first voyage to India by steam in the Enterprise.

In 1888 the Royal William was said to have crossed the Atlantic in twenty-one days.

In 1888 the Sirius left Queenstown April 4, and reached New York April 21. The Royal Navy, as already stated, includes 561 armed vessels, manned by 129,000 trained sailors. Besides these there is available, in case of war, an auxiliary force of forty-six merchant cruisers, all ocean-going ships of high speed. The value of such a reserve is apparent enough; but it is not quite so clear why the Post-Office should be called on to find the subventions very properly paid to the owners for maintaining a Naval Reserve. These subventions are very large. In 1889-1890 they amounted to £665,875; last year the total was £805,822. The packets run in every direction—northwards to the Scottish Isles, eastwards to Holland and Germany, southwards to France, Portugal, and the Mediterranean. The Cunard, White Star, and American lines communicate with the United States and Canada; and other great lines with the British African Colonies, while the Peninsular and Oriental and Orient companies perform the service to India, the East, and Australia. Finally, there is the service between Canada, Japan, and Hong Kong.

1768. There were four packets at Harwich, six at Dover, and five to New York, the total cost being £10,000 per annum.

1788. Commissioners of Fees and Gratuities reported that in the preceding seventeen years the cost of the packets had been £1,088,188, or about £61,000 a year; that many of the vessels belonged to officers of the